On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
COGMAGOG ' S STRICTURES ON BP . BURGESS ' S " PRINCIPLES . " LETTER II . c { To make possession and establishments a test of truth , is the sure way to ba * nish reason and inquiry out of society . If from particular and national societies , we extend the rule to the universal one of mankind , ivhat ivould become of Christianity itself , if a majority or novelty must be the criterion of true and false ? We should have nothing left but to join with Tindal , and maintain it to be * as old as the Creation * * "—Dr . Middieton ' s Works , Vol . I . p . 391 . To the Editor of the Monthly Repository .
Sir , My former strictures upon the Right Reverend author of the u First Principles of Christian Knowledge / ' may perhaps have appeared to some of your good-natured readers uncharitably severe ; for there is in well-disposed minds an amiable incredulity on the side of men's follies and vices ; and he that is hardy enough , to expose , and , as far as he can , to chastise them ^ not unfrequently incurs the imputation of censoriousness for his pains . Tff such be the light in which any of them have
viewed my first letter , I shall now at least undeceive them , and set them right , and leave them wondering , not that I have taken the field against this daring ecclesiastic , but that some more able polemic has not torn in pieces his web of sophistry , and beaten down the fabric which he has attempted to raise of
absurdity and intolerance . The Bishop shall draw his own picture , and greatly . am I mistaken if the portrait do not excite in the minds of your friends a livelier disgust and indignation than my explanation of it . There is a species of physiognomy which it is impossible to caricature . A high-church zealot is a creature whose deformity is lessened by being exaggerated : this creature ^ Sir , the monstrous offspring of church and state
alliances , is too commonly thought to be extinct . I shall shew you that individuals of the species still exist , and that , though their power is gone , their disposition is unchanged : the animal has lost his tusk and claws , but he retains his ferocity . My quotations will excite , indeed , diversified sentiments , and relieving you occasionally from the serious feeling of
indignation at the Bishop ' s persecuting spirit , will call up at times the lighter one , of wonder at his ignorance , or contempt of the futility of his arguments , or ridicule of his absurd pretensions .
In his Catechetical cc Introduction on the Duty of Conformity / ' the Bishop asks his pupil , cc What were the persons called whom the apostles appointed to govern the church and administer its ordinances ? " and immediately answers— " They were called Bishops , Priests , and Deacons ; " aud , lest the
Untitled Article
( 633 )
Untitled Article
vol . 1 . 4 M
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1806, page 633, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1731/page/17/
-